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Home Front: Politix
Michael Bloomberg Belittled Farmers, Machinists: Modern Jobs Require More ‘Gray Matter’
2020-02-18
[BREITBART] Mike Bloomberg
...Billionaire former Republican mayor and nanny of New York, Dem candidate for president in 2020. Wants to rid the country of assault weapons, other kinds of guns, and 32-ounce soft drinks...
, who is under fire after a string of old sexist and racially insensitive remarks resurfaced on social media last week, made the belittling comments at a 2016 Oxford University forum in England. During the forum, the former mayor asserted that a major obstacle to uniting America’s heartland with the coasts was the inability of blue-collar workers to transition into the information economy.
I never knew much about this fellow, but the more I learn the less I actually want to know.
“I could teach anybody, even people in this room, no offense intended, to be a farmer,” Bloomberg said. “It’s a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn. You could learn that.”

“Then we had 300 years of the industrial society,” he continued. “You put the piece of metal on the lathe, you turn the crank in the direction of the arrow, and you can have a job.”

Bloomberg proceeded to argue that with the advancement of the information economy, individuals who would have prospered in the old industrial and farming jobs are now at a disadvantage because they lack adequate education and intellect.

“Now comes the information economy and [it] is fundamentally different because it’s built around replacing people with technology and the skill sets that you have to learn are how to think and analyze, and that is a whole degree level different,” he said. “You have to have a different skill set, you have to have a lot more gray matter.”

Bloomberg added that it was unclear if the skills or “gray matter” required for such high-skilled jobs could be easily taught in schools, so the “challenge of society” was figuring out how to provide for those locked out of the information economy.

Related:
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Mike Bloomberg: 2020-01-19 Bloomberg can delay financial disclosure until after Super Tuesday
Posted by:Fred

#35  Every time I see my friend Salome Ruiz I ask about how his work farming alfalfa is going. And it always amazes me how complex, interesting, and difficult it is. You need to get four or maybe five cuttings a year to keep the farm profitable. If it's too dry, you need to pump water out of the ground. If it's too wet, you cant bail or they will rot before they get to the livestock.

Of course big diesel pumps take a lot of work to maintain. Then there's keeping the pivots working. They're finicky bastards - and sometimes the newer models are worse than the old ones.

I could go on...
Posted by: Secret Master   2020-02-18 22:57  

#34  A machinist could make an AK-47 and shoot holes in all the elitists toys.
Posted by: Glenmore    2020-02-18 20:14  

#33   made the belittling comments at a 2016 Oxford University forum in England.

2016. Somebody has been collecting against future need. And voilá! Here it is, just in time to get the voters riled up.
Posted by: trailing wife   2020-02-18 20:03  

#32  
Posted by: Woodrow   2020-02-18 19:13  

#31  back of the loft to the front, 8-12 high

That all B? That's the height in a garden shed :)
Posted by: Woodrow   2020-02-18 18:59  

#30  Bloomberg made his 52 Billion Dollars by being a ruthless cut throat in his line of work. He knows the working class supports Trump but going around trash talking the working class shows he is dumb as a door knob when it comes to getting votes.
Posted by: Goober Tingle7365   2020-02-18 18:00  

#29  I'm _waaaaayyyy_ too angry to think of something funny to say about this cretin.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2020-02-18 17:29  

#28  I'm sort of a halfassed machinist these days but I spend more time fixing machinery than I do running it. Or so it seems.

All I gotta saqy is, Ugh.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2020-02-18 17:21  

#27  Sean Davis of The Federalist (pace Paul Harvey): So God Made a Bloomberg
Posted by: Lex   2020-02-18 16:58  

#26  ^ Snark O'The Day!
Posted by: Lex   2020-02-18 16:32  

#25  I spent some time years ago in an old-school machine shop. It wasn't a place for idiots (I remember trying to work with brass). Modern ones, with the programmable machines ...

The last time I asked, managing even a small farm was a pretty sophisticated operation.

Though I suppose, compared to micromanaging the diets and straw usage of millions of New Yorkers, either job looks simple.
Posted by: James   2020-02-18 16:00  

#24  Farming B Hard.

Which is why countries in Africa, that stole white farms and gave them to locals, failed miserably.
Posted by: DarthVader   2020-02-18 12:51  

#23  So now we know why he didn't campaign in Iowa.

This guy is a walking, talking advertisement for the Electoral College. He might win New York and California, if Bernie doesn't beat him in the primaries. But Iowans, like the residents of other flyover states, are smart enough to know when the arrogant prick from New York thinks he's smarter than they are.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2020-02-18 12:35  

#22  *Why the hell coding is considered a sign of intellect?

It wouldn't be if you met the H1B visa coders I know.
Posted by: Hellfish   2020-02-18 12:31  

#21   So we know now that he hates mothers and pregnancy ("Kill it!")

He probably only objects to pregnancy and motherhood among those females who are his employees or girlfriend material. In other words, when it gets in the way of them fulfilling his needs.

To be fair with regard to M.Murcek’s point about big city folk, farmers are invisible in my Midwest suburban life, too, except for weekly farmers markets around town and those of my acquaintance who do not farm properties in the country.
Posted by: trailing wife   2020-02-18 10:43  

#20  Soooo, its not so much he is worth billions, but is the face of a cabal worth billions.

The last time I hand beveled metal in a lathe to go make pokey-holes for seeds.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2020-02-18 10:32  

#19  I saw this attitude when I lived in NYC and it's undoubtedly common to all large urban areas: Food comes from "the store." It gets there by magic and even if all the icky flyover people were killed off (the Blue Dream) the store would still have food. Big city people all know that.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2020-02-18 10:10  

#18  I've had, basically, two careers. The first one was the hardest. I was a nail banger. It really was a blast restoring a burned out brownstone in Boston in the summer, not. Then there were the winter jobs roofing when the surface was icy.

Second job was as a bit head. Had that one for 34 years and it paid quite well. Harder only in that you had to work with so many idiots. The skills were completely different except that the better you were with math helped with each.

Bloomberg should get the first spot in the Tumbril.
Posted by: AlanC   2020-02-18 10:02  

#17  What an absurd little man.

What did the American people do to be rewarded with such a shitty, nasty, moronic political class?

How did this happen?
Posted by: Lex   2020-02-18 09:52  

#16  "Let them eat cake code." spoken by Michael "would-be French Autocrat" Bloomberg.
Posted by: magpie   2020-02-18 09:36  

#15  Trump's 2020 re-election campaign thanks you for this outburst, little Mikey.
Posted by: Raj   2020-02-18 09:28  

#14  Mini-Mike is a little man(?) in more than stature.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839   2020-02-18 09:05  

#13  So that explains why anyone with a brain will never listen to anyone in authority elected or not or with a fake badge! Just look at the WHOLE picture! Thanx number 1 for your comment !
Posted by: Vinegar Jolugum3839   2020-02-18 07:49  

#12  He should be required to only eat food and drink grown/made in NYC
Posted by: Frank G   2020-02-18 06:51  

#11  Urbanist vs anyone else mentality writ big.

Mr. Haney to the courtesy phone.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2020-02-18 06:31  

#10  #7 IOW he's against motherhood, the common man, and democracy.

What's so common about farming? 6% of USA population feed half the world. I believe their business is considerably more complicated than coding*.

Absolutely right, grom. An extraordinarily difficult profession pursued by truly uncommon people: uncommon skill, tenacity, courage, fortitude.

I was trying to avoid the cliche "the working man."

I guess it's an indication of how far away we've fallen from our old standard of respect and gratitude for people who feed us, who build things, who fix things and move things from here to there -- from the agricultural and mechanical trades -- that I couldn't even find in our vernacular the right term for such people.

We really need a new political class, a new political discourse -- and a different, more traditional culture.
Posted by: Lex   2020-02-18 02:53  

#9  a whole degree level different

Can anyone parse this mush?

"degree level" = what, exactly? Does he mean to say "degree" as in difference of degree instead of difference of kind? If so, then he's actually saying the opposite of what he seems to intend.

Or was he thinking of "degree" in the sense of university degree -- perhaps subconsciously envying the much bigger dick more prestigious (vs Johns Hopkins) Oxford (pedi)gree?

Also, how does adding the modifier "whole" clarify what, if anything, this overrated nasty little shit is struggling to articulate?

Or was he just showing how vulgar and Jerry Lee Lewis-ish he actually is ("whole lotta degree-shaking' goin' on..")?

What an overrated asshole.

This country has the worst political class since Tammany. We are ruled by morons.
Posted by: Lex   2020-02-18 02:48  

#8  I believe their business is considerably more complicated than coding*.

Also, farming needs 'updates' only once in decades and only when they've been sufficiently tested... so there's that.
Posted by: Dron66046   2020-02-18 02:45  

#7  IOW he's against motherhood, the common man, and democracy.

What's so common about farming? 6% of USA population feed half the world. I believe their business is considerably more complicated than coding*.

*Why the hell coding is considered a sign of intellect?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2020-02-18 02:41  

#6  the skill sets that you have to learn are how to think and analyze, and that is a whole degree level different

A man who thinks 'thinking' is itself an acquired skill set, 'a whole degree level different'.
Posted by: Dron66046   2020-02-18 02:40  

#5  A nasty little specimen, isn't he?

So we know now that he hates mothers and pregnancy ("Kill it!"), that he hates farmers and workers, and that he thinks he can buy an election.

IOW he's against motherhood, the common man, and democracy.

What country does this little shithead think he's living in?
Posted by: Lex   2020-02-18 02:35  

#4  Ref #2: A man of his intellect should not be out in the sun. I would prefer he be stationed up in a warm barn loft, stacking bales (back of the loft to the front, 8-12 high) as they fall from an elevator. I'm certain he'd prefer to work alone. Farming be hard.
Posted by: Besoeker   2020-02-18 02:25  

#3  Or the 4 AM reposition a breech calf before having to pull it.

Fuck you Mikey.
Posted by: Woodrow   2020-02-18 02:00  

#2  I'd like to see Bloomers try stacking 80 pound hay bales 8 high on a moving wagon with 95 degrees. Then in a 110 degree hay mow.
Posted by: Woodrow   2020-02-18 02:00  

#1  Criminals have 'smaller BRAINS': Scientists claim the 'handicap' which can be spotted in early childhood may explain why life-long offenders lie, steal and are violent
Posted by: Skidmark   2020-02-18 00:28  

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